Set up Microsoft StaffHub

Important: Effective October 1, 2019, Microsoft StaffHub will be retired. We're building StaffHub capabilities, including schedule and task management, into Microsoft Teams. To learn more, read Microsoft StaffHub to be retired.

Microsoft StaffHub lets workers and their managers use their mobile devices to manage schedules and keep in touch.

Managers create, update, and manage shift schedules for the team. They can also send messages to one person ("there's a spill on the floor") or the entire team ("the regional GM is arriving in 20 minutes"). They can send policy documents, news bulletins, or videos.

If set to On, StaffHub has the ability to create new Office 365 accounts for firstline workers who don't already have an identity in your organization. This lets you scale a large number of firstline workers without a lot of overhead.

Here's how it works: Firstline workers can create their account by using the StaffHub mobile app. When they launch the app and click "Need an account?" they will create the new ID in your organization. Now they can use the app!

StaffHub automatically adds the account to the StaffHubProvisionedUsers security group. It doesn't assign an Office 365 license to the account.

StaffHub provisions an Office 365 group for every te﻿am that's created. All members of the StaffHub team are also added as members of the Office 365 group.

Files and documents that are shared by a team manager are stored in the group SharePoint.

To help you organize these new groups in your global address list, we recommend specifying a prefix for all groups that are created by Microsoft StaffHub. This will make them easy to identify in your address book.

Team Custom Fields

When a manager creates a new team, they are prompted to enter information about that team. You can add custom fields for managers to complete at the same time. A custom field can be either a text field or a drop down. Example uses are “Location ID” for a text field or “Region” drop-down selections.

If a team already exists and you add a custom field, you need to tell the managers to go back and populate the field in the team's settings. There's no automated notification process.

The custom fields will appear in usage reports.

Note: This new feature is gradually rolling out world wide. If you don't see this option, you don't yet have it. Check back soon!

Employee Resources

Enter URLs to important resources or PowerApp Apps for your firstline workers. The links will appear in the StaffHub mobile app, under Employee Resources.

Before you roll out Microsoft StaffHub to your entire organization, we recommend that you begin with 2-3 pilot teams. Whether you pick one store or multiple stores, be sure to get 2-3 teams that can set up their schedule and invite their immediate team. This will help you refine your launch plan and ensure you are ready for an organization-wide deployment.

Successful pilots also help spread the word about their experiences which generates excitement throughout the organization for the next wave of launch.

Plan

Identify pilot teams

Reach out across a few locations or frontline teams to identify 2-3 pilot teams. In order to participate in the pilot, the entire team should commit to using Microsoft StaffHub as the primary way to create and manage their schedule and communicate with each other for at least 1 week to 1 month depending on their typical schedule length. This gives pilot teams the opportunity to fully understand the capabilities of Microsoft StaffHub, and identity the best way to integrate it into their workflows.

Identify team champions

Identify champions across pilot teams and enlist them to drive adoption of Microsoft StaffHub. Champions are not only passionate about what they do, but are also excited to evangelize and help their peers to learn more effective solutions. Champions can be the schedule manager of the team, or it can be a regional manager that will be your contact for the pilot teams.

Setup pilots for success

Give champions the flexibility to customize Microsoft StaffHub for their pilots, while ensuring you maintain control through advanced security and management capabilities in the admin center. Having open settings enables pilot teams to explore everything Microsoft StaffHub has to offer. You can always adjust settings as teams evolve.

Launch

Hold a kickoff meeting with team champions

The best way to get pilot teams excited about Microsoft StaffHub is to get everyone together, either in person or virtually. Schedule a kickoff meeting to introduce Microsoft StaffHub, discuss the pilot program and get team champions to experience Microsoft StaffHub. Show the product tour video as an overview of Microsoft StaffHub and the Onboarding video to show how to get their team up and running. And you can always point them to StaffHub support articles for additional help.

Invite team champions to Microsoft StaffHub

Start using Microsoft StaffHub with your team champions. Have them add you to each pilot team so you can use Microsoft StaffHub messaging as you plan for launch. Communicate important updates regarding launch, capture feedback from pilot teams, answer quick questions and share success in Microsoft StaffHub.

Help team champions stage and launch pilots

Staging Microsoft StaffHub. Assist champions with the staging of their Microsoft StaffHub. Encourage team champions to seed welcome posts and team resources for users to discover inside the product. It is recommended that you keep initial staging very minimal as to allow users to organically create and update schedules, upload content for the teams, and start group chats.

Launching Microsoft StaffHub. Team champions are responsible for defining the purpose of their teams, scope of use versus other tools, norms for communicating in the open, and process for requesting schedule updates.

As team champions prepare for launch, encourage them to organize a meeting with their pilot team, similar to your initial kickoff meeting.

Team champions should ensure team members are properly set up to use Microsoft StaffHub by dedicating time for everyone to sign in, download the mobile applications, and to check out their schedules and start chatting with each other.

Nurture

Shift work to Microsoft StaffHub. Help pilot teams take off by encouraging champions to shift important conversations, updates and content to Microsoft StaffHub. This will make team members feel confident about making the switch themselves.

Launch to the rest of your Firstline Workforce

Raise Awareness

Go beyond pilot teams to let your entire organization know about Microsoft StaffHub. FastTrack provides IT Admin resources to do this by including resources to help spread the word, such as the Announcement template, Countdown template, Flyer, Poster, Tips and Tricks emails. Check the FastTrack website or ask your Microsoft sales person for these assets.

Provide Training

Organize training events and Q&A sessions tailored for specific teams and use cases.

Enable Innovation

Collaborate with champions across the organization to identify advanced use cases, including custom integrations and bots to make the most of Microsoft StaffHub. Share Microsoft StaffHub feedback via User Voice or the in-product Feedback link. Engage with other IT Pros in the Microsoft StaffHub Tech Community.

Microsoft StaffHub protects team data securely using strong security measures including two factor authentication, hard passwords and access policies. Your data is encrypted, whether it is chat, notes or files. It’s your data, you own it, you control it. Microsoft does not mine customer data for advertising purposes and we safeguard customer data with strong contractual commitments.

Where is StaffHub data stored?

StaffHub data is currently stored in Azure in datacenters in North America and Western Europe. For more information about where data is stored, see Where is my data?